As then US President Donald Trump tightened the rules around H1-B visa and asked global firms to invest more and hire Americans in the country, IT software major Infosys also ramped up its hiring of American workers, but many of those young workers found themselves getting paid handsomely and do nothing, The Verge has reported.
Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, in September 2020 announced that it plans to hire 12,000 American workers over the next two years, bringing its hiring commitment in the country to 25,000 over five years.
In 2017, Infosys had committed to hiring 10,000 American workers over two years and exceeded that goal by creating 13,000 jobs in the US.
According to The Verge report, when Infosys has more employees than it needs for its clients, those spare employees end up on the "Bench", where they are, in effect, paid to do nothing.
At first, being on the "Bench" had its perks, particularly for Josh, who worked remotely due to the pandemic.
"I ended up playing a lot of video games," he said.
But his time on the "Bench" began to wear on him for reasons he found difficult to describe to his family and friends," the report quoted Josh as saying.
"It was really hard to explain to them why I felt like it was a bad thing,a Josh added. "They were just likea 'Well, you're getting paid to do nothing, how could that be bad? That sounds like a dream job.'"
Infosys' three-decade reliance on the H-1B visas came under siege during the Trump administration, which instituted new rules in 2020 targeting the visa programme.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/infosys-paid-young-americans-to-do-nothing-report-1059196.html
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